How Old For Free Range?

[TyRi]

Quick question! How long before you let your birds out to free range and they know to get back to the run/coop for the evening? They are about 10ish weeks old now and have been out in the coop/run for 2 weeks. Would they be okay now or wait till egg laying age? There are 18 of them so it would be good to know before I’m chasing 18 chickens 18 different way back towards the run! Thanks!

 

[Debbie292d]

Quick question! How long before you let your birds out to free range and they know to get back to the run/coop for the evening? They are about 10ish weeks old now and have been out in the coop/run for 2 weeks. Would they be okay now or wait till egg laying age? There are 18 of them so it would be good to know before I’m chasing 18 chickens 18 different way back towards the run! Thanks!

You can try putting a light for them in the doorway of the coop for the first few days. They may not realize they have to go back before dark then be unable to see where it is and just huddle up any old place.

We've let ours free range as young as 6 weeks, but prefer to wait until about the age of yours.

 

[Quail345]

I free range mine at 3 months. Good luck and,,,

 

[Mikski]

I have a flock of 12, now 13. They are all around 9 weeks old. I let them out for supervised free range time about a week ago (so starting at 8 weeks). I was amazed how quickly they ran back to the coop at the slightest startle. It was easy to get them to go back. But mine have been in the coop/run for about a month now so they very much see it as home.